Zero-ed Out
by T-Rellz and Quizo
Summary: Everything goes blurry in Katniss' mind after the Games begin, and after the bloodbath she escapes the bloodbath, she becomes even more confused as she tries to sift through the mystery of why she was spared by Clove... Please, be kind with the reviews this is our first story, thanks. We hope you enjoy. And may the odds be ever in your favor.
1. Zero

_Zero._

Katniss leapt off of the platform and ran as fast as she could across the open field to the Cornucopia. She had to get to the bow and arrows which were almost dangling in front of her face. She just _had_ to. She needed them desperately. Desperately, because right now, it didn't matter what Haymitch said. Right now, it didn't change her mind when Peeta shook his head no. Right now, she would throw away everything that eleven meant for her when her rating was broadcasted and announced to the world. None of it mattered. She needed those arrows, she needed that bow, and nothing would stop her from getting them.

But Katniss _did_ stop. Her mind turned back to Peeta, and she turned and watched as he ran to the safety of the forest. Safe and sound. Time seemed to slow down as watched the blurry, distorted images of her competitors fly past her. She watched as they were running, pillaging and... dying! Tributes were being _slaughtered!_ Blades flew and clashed and killed! Necks were breaking, bones were being crushed, and lives were being taken, stolen... claimed. Katniss' mind swam. _What am I doing? Why can't I move?!_ she thought, frozen helplessly. Katniss knew she should run. She knew she should get to safety. But in this sickly moment, her body betrayed her and Time made her stop and stay, and watch.

Suddenly, Katniss head involuntarily whipped to the left in time to see a girl snatch up one of two backpacks next to a platform as she ran off the field in to the safety of the woods. And, finally, breaking free form the hold Time once had on her, she ran to retrieve the other pack. In what seemed to be one swift movement, _whoosh!_ she grabbed the back and was about to flee when she tripped and fell back onto the hard, packed ground.

Or rather, was tripped _by_ another tribute. She looked up to see the boy from District Nine towering over her. She panicked and closed her grey eyes as he raised his ax...


	2. Narrow Escape

But the blow never came. All Katniss felt was a spray of a sticky substance coating her face, all she heard was a pained scream of agony not her own, and Katniss opened her eyes to see the backpack in her hands and the boy on the ground, a knife protruding from his back. _But who…?_ She looked up—it was the district two girl, still in post-throwing position, and Time seemed to slow down. A look of…pity? seemed to cover her face. Or was it something else? For what was the reason she spared Katniss' life in a place where a game of death was taking place? _Why would you—?_ But Katniss didn't put much into the thought, when suddenly the Two girl seemed to snap out of it and a knife embedded itself into the bag.

Confused, frightened, and shocked, Katniss stood shakily and stumbled away, as she saw Miss Two sprinting after her. _But she _never _misses,_ Katniss thought, now in the safety of the trees. _How did she miss me? _Why_ would she miss me?_ Katniss didn't know what to make of the situation as she dodge arrogant roots and unforgiving thorny vines that seemed to attempt to scar and trip her in her sprint on her way to…to where? Katniss stopped, feeling tired and rested her hands on her knees, and attempted to sift through all that was the Two girl.

_BOOM!_ She rose, startled. What is _that?_ She heard it again—_BOOM! BOOM!_ The cannons, that's what they were. Canons. _BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!_ She counted eleven. _Eleven _canons—the number which seemed to encircle and cling to her like a parasitic disease—and wondered who all had died. There were so many faces that flew by her she couldn't remember. _Please don't let it be Rue…_Katniss thought. _Or Peeta! Anyone but Peeta!_ But then who could it have been? Cato? _No_. The fox-faced girl? _No, too sneaky... Too sneaky…hmm…_ Well definitely the District Nine boy. He tried to kill her, and that's when she…

_Enough,_ she thought after a few minutes, scolding herself as she rose again. _The games are confusing enough, don't add more dimensions._ Katniss sighed heavily and began to tread her way through this unknown place. Then she began to jog, then walk, then jog, alternating—anything to keep from sitting down. Or worse falling down: She could _not_ appear weak.

After some hours, the projected arena's sun began to set, and Katniss knew she should find a place to stop and rest for the night. A tree was preferable, and she found one—a nice pine she could easily scale thirty feet up before the branches could make her invisible. And luckily a pine was only some few meters away. With all the grace and silence she could muster, Katniss climbed the tree quietly and sat on a sturdy branch.

She opened her pack and found quite a few useful things: A sleeping bag, rope, a ball of twine for snares, dried fruit, a pair of…sunglasses? _What? Well, I guess the Capitol likes _all_ things fashionable._ And a bottle. Katniss screwed off the top quickly and brought it to her lips before dropping it back disappointedly in her lap. Empty. _Is it too much to ask to just fill up the bottle?_ She sighed and decided she was tired, and would sort through her mess of thoughts in the morning, if there _was_ to be a morning for her. _Just go to sleep, and don't think about that now,_ she thought as she spread out her sleeping bag and tied herself in with the rope. As she felt herself drift off, thoughts of the Two girl, once again entered her mind…


	3. Twelve Down

Katniss woke with a start after hearing a snapping noise. She shot up and whipped her head from side to side, mimicking the actions of a high-speed surveillance camera. She looked down and saw it: A pair of hands hovering over a small fire. Fury. All Katniss felt was fury. All she saw was red. All she took in was the fact that this idiot of a tribute is announcing shamelessly to everyone in the area that someone was there. _Idiot!_ She wanted to scream, _you idiot! Can't you suck it up till morning?! Do you think?!_ Katniss knew to stay put. It was too late to run now. No, in the tree, with a (thankfully) black sleeping bag, she had much better cover. Feeling somewhat comforted by knowing that, she drifted slowly off to sleep.

A scream tore through the air and Katniss' eyes shot open. She didn't bother to look this time. She heard the unforgiving cackle of the Career pack before she saw them come into view. She knew three things now: The tribute was dead, the tribute was a girl, and the Careers killed her and were coming closer and closer. Katniss didn't have enough time to hope that the tribute wasn't little Rue, because they were here. Branches snapped, crushed by the arrogant tributes, their laughing and mocking filled the air as they came into the small clearing beneath her. She saw the lot of them when she decided, against her better judgment, to look down. Or rather, she saw their silhouettes and just a few faces out of... seven, she counted wordlessly in her mind.

"Did you see her face?" a voice giggled excitedly; a voice that could only belong to the blonde from District One. Oh, yes, she remembered the an_noy_ing nasal quality of that voice, and how she swept over and hogged the archery stations conceitedly at the Training Center. Bows and arrows never seemed to be a weapon she excelled with, but she claimed it anyway, much to the annoyance (and abhorrence) of Katniss. "Did you hear her? Oh, please! Please! Don't! Don't kill me, please!" The District One princess mocked.

"We were all there, Glitter," another voice mused with boredom, presumably a girl. Katniss couldn't see who, but there was a quality that was all too feminine about that voice to make it Cato, the boy from District Two, or _Glitter's?_ district partner.  
She saw the both of them standing together, Cato and District One's female. It didn't take much for Katniss to decide how they got together. Glitter, or whatever her name is, didn't seem to have much of a problem showing off her long legs at Caesar's interview last night.

"Hey, Lover Boy!" a dominant voice called out. "Are you sure she went this way?" Now, that was the voice that should belong to Cato. _But who's Lover Boy?_ Katniss asked herself. Lover Boy. Lover Boy... _Lover Boy! Seriously, Peeta?! Are. You. Serious?!_ So he was trying to kill her _after_ all.

"Yeah," Peeta answered quickly. She couldn't see his face, but she knew his voice by now. "That was her snare we found back there." The Careers then engaged themselves in several short and rather pointless conversations before arguing over the realization that no cannon announced the female tribute's death. After Cato's insisting that she was dead, Peeta went to finish her off. And a cannon sounded._ Finally_, Katniss thought. _Enough bickering; let me sleep!_ The Careers decided to move on. And they did noisily as Katniss watched. The Two girl as Katniss recognized her face seemed to follow behind. As she passed under the tree, she suddenly looked up. Katniss froze in fear and watched her tensely as she passed. The Two girl looked down again and followed her allies without a word. _She didn't say anything, or do anything_, Katniss thought. _I thought all the Careers wanted me dead_. Katniss watched until the girl was out of sight, thinking maybe not all of them wanted her dead... well, _yet,_ anyway.


	4. Unexpected Ally

Katniss woke up groggily. Her head was pounding. Her hands went straight to massage her temples as she closed her eyes tightly in an attempt to push the migraine as far away from and out of her as possible. She sat against the back of the tree and opened her eyes again and gasped at the shocking sight in front of her. At the sight of another tribute sitting on the tree branch with her, Katniss quaked in fear. It wasn't just any tribute—it was the mysterious girl who spared her life at the bloodbath. It was the girl who said nothing when she saw her hidden up here in the tree the previous night. It was the same tribute whom Katniss had been trying to figure out for days, the one who complicated everything so far. Miss Two sat comfortably on the branch picking at the dirt that coated the undersides her nails. It was as if it were normal for two tributes who never met before to be so close to one another in a pageant fabricated for children to fight to the death. Miss Two didn't look at Katniss when she said suddenly, "I haven't slept all night." She flicked some dirt away.

"Not once," she continued. "Damn, Cato can ex_haust_ you. Even back at the Training Centers—not just the one in the Capitol, but also the one in our district—he never gave me a break! And of course _I_ had to be his partner all those years. It sucked for me when he volunteered. I knew it was just more unnecessary work and review of stuff I already know."

Katniss had stopped shaking after her first sentence. She was more confused than ever. How could this girl, this _Career_, be so open and loquacious given everything that was going on? Katniss was so sure she was going to kill her. _She_ _is_… i_sn't_ _she_? Katniss thought. Well, of course she was! She wanted to win just like all the others… So… why hasn't she made a move yet?

Miss Two still didn't look up, but she sensed Katniss' anxiety. "I'm not going to kill you if that's what you have in mind," she assured. "Shit, I'm not stupid. Think about it, you're useless to me dead."

Katniss blinked, stunned. _Wait, what?_ "W-what do you want with me?" Katniss stammered out.

Two stopped fidgeting with her nails. What did she want? That's a question she's been asking herself about for weeks. An alliance is useful, of course, yes. Friendship, however, was un_think_able, not here. No, in all honesty, what she wanted was to get to know Katniss. Who _is_ she? How did she get her in_sup_erable rating? For Miss Two, it was like hunting down a celebrity. Except that now that they've started to meet, she has no idea what to say or ask Katniss. Either way, she had to think of something, anything, to say. She began to pick at her nails again nervously.

"Well, you're not as dumb as District Eight was," she began.

"Uh, District Eight?" Katniss asked.

"The idiot who lit that fire."

"Oh."

The Two Girl paused, unsure of what to say now. Katniss decided to fill the silence. "Well," she began cautiously. "If you're not here to kill me, what _are_ you going to do? Force me to join the Careers?"

"No."

Neither girl knew what to say. They sat in the tree for some time in an awkward silence. The Two Girl seemed to be enduring the awkwardness well. She still didn't look Katniss' way, and it was as though she could pick at her nails until they were so spotless that there was nothing left but the skin beneath them. As for Katniss, she began to relax. She was still on her guard of course, but not in the same way. After all, could she really trust this… this… Career? The Capitol must be just as confused as they were. Katniss opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again. She looked around for… answers? Questions? _Well, say something!_ she thought. But she didn't. What would she say? The boredom she felt was eating at her. _Well, at least she _some_one to talk to, I guess._ Katniss chose her words carefully, not knowing what would set the Career off. "So…" she said. "…you… come from District Two…"

The Two Girl chuckled. "_Yes, _obviously, why?"

"What do they do there?"

"Masonry and Weaponry."

_Masonry_, _what_ _is_ _that_ _exactly_? "What's masonry?" Katniss asked.

"Stonework."

"Like in mines?"

"Sort of."

"Oh." _Well, that was short._ Katniss tried again. "Did you have any hobbies in District Two?"

"Not really," was another short reply from the Two Girl.

Katniss sighed quietly. It irritated her that she'd been with the Career for a little under ten minutes and she knew almost absolutely _no_thing about her, except that she knew Cato for a fair amount of time. She'd been so talkative and gregarious when Katniss first woke up, and now that Katniss wanted to know more, the Two Girl gave her nothing. "So where are the Careers, exactly?" Katniss inquired, almost giving up entirely.

"They're at the lake."

"The lake," Katniss repeated. "Hmm…" Well, if they're at the lake, they'll always have water. They'd also always be the closest to the Cornucopia should there be a feast. Maybe they were using the Horn itself as a tent. Such arrogant tributes; such arrogant careers! _How do they win the Games _every_ year? _Katniss thought bitterly. _Is there no justice left in the world? What happened to the rest of the world after our country—our _world,_ really—fell? _No_ one came to our aid, to "North America's", as it was called, aid. They told us we were a _sup_erpower! They told us we helped almost _every_ other country and not _one_ of them came to help the "North Americans"! And Panem wonders how the Districts believe there is no justice, no honor! They wonder why! They wonder why we hate the world when no one helped this country recover, why we rebelled, why we hate them for hosting this sick game, why we hate those brainwashed lapdogs—those sorry excuses for Districts known as One, Two, and Four. They _won_der _why! _The ignorance… _Katniss continued her rant—pointlessly—in her head. "They're at the lake," she droned again rhetorically.

"Yes…" the Two Girl answered. She looked up from her nails, almost suspiciously. "Why do you care?"

Katniss blinked away her haze of anger and tried to fabricate a way to respond quickly without offending her, or the Capitol and President Snow for that matter. "Uh, nothing." _Oh, yeah, _that's_ gonna clean up and blow over _real _ly well._

The Two Girl smirked. "You miss your Lover Boy?"

Katniss blushed and looked away. "He's not my Lover Boy."

"Oh, I think he is," Miss Two replied. "Or at least—" she leaned closer to Katniss, as if telling some exclusive secret. "—he wants to be. And you _know_ this. Why do you think he's trying so damn hard?"

"I don't know." _Why is she so worried about Peeta?_ "What's so interesting about my… love life anyway?" Katniss replied with false courage. "I don't even know your name."

The Two Girl leaned back and looked at her nails. "Lots of people don't know lots of people they talk to. They just talk, geez," The girl said defensively. Then she paused for a moment. "Tell you what," she continued. "Let's be allies, temporarily, until you and Lover Boy reunite in your own sappy, romantic, comedic way, 'cause if I were you, I'd reap the benefits of having somebody who's crushing on you." She looked up. "Yes?"

Katniss thought. "Okay… I guess."

"Good."


	5. Uncertainty

..."Just remember," the Two Girl reminded. "After you and Lover Boy get together, you and I—we go our separate ways."

"And then our alliance just... fizzles out?" Katniss asked.

The other girl nodded, still not looking at her.

"Okay," Katniss replied. And with that, Katniss untied herself from the tree and pulled herself out of her sleeping bag. She lifted her water bottle to find that the weight had changed, and that the sides were sweating the way water bottles do. She screwed off the lid and found that it filled to the brim with cool water. "You filled my water bottle?" The other girl looked up, then down again at her nails and shrugged. Katniss smiled and drank two gulps before deciding to save it for later. She put the water away in her pack. She found the dried fruit and discovered the bag was half full. "...and of _course,_ you ate my food."

The Two Girl smirked. "I was hungry," she said innocently.

"So am I," Katniss replied, but she put the fruit away anyway. She found the sunglasses in her pack. "Say," she asked, holding them up. "Why do you suppose they gave us sunglasses?"

The other girl looked up and took them in her hands to scrutinize. "Oh, they're not sunglasses," she explained. "They're night vision lenses."

_"Night_ vision?" Katniss marveled. "So _that's_ how you Careers—I mean, you guys hunt at night."

"Yeah, we had three pairs of them: Mine, Cato's, and Cato's spare ones." She took her own out of her pocket.

"Oh," said Katniss, not knowing what else to say. "I think maybe we should get down."

"Kay."

Katniss rolled up the sleeping bag neatly and stored it away in her pack. Then, she began to climb down. When she reached the bottom, the Two Girl climbed down then jumped to the bottom when she was close enough. For the first time, Katniss realized how much shorter the other girl compared to her was, and she couldn't help the giggle that escaped her.

The other girl scowled. "What?"

"Nothing. So, they're at the lake," Katniss said.

"_Yes_," the other girl answered that question yet _again._ "Three miles south-east of here."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Katniss replied. She then realized she hadn't told the other girl her name. _Well, now seems like a good time._ "I'm Katniss, by the way."

The other girl looked at her, as if in thought. "You mean, like the plant?"

"Yeah."

The other girl considered it, and then she said, "Nice."

_I guess she's not gonna tell me her name_. "So, how have things been?"

The other girl looked at her and said nothing as they walked.

"Sorry, that _was_ a dumb question, wasn't it?"

Still no response from the other girl; she simply looked away. Katniss began to fear how much she might have offended her.

I meant for the Careers though, how have you guys been making out so far?"

"If we _were_n't okay, we'd be dead, wouldn't we?" the other girl said coldly.

"Oh." They continued their trek in silence for a few minutes before Katniss tried, again, to initiate a conversation. "So... Peeta's not hurt, is he?" she asked.

The Two girl seemed to stiffen at the sound of his name as she walked. After a pause she answered, "Not much."

_Not much?_ "Define 'not much'."

"He took a punch to face as his shall we say, initiation, into our alliance," she defined nonchalantly, waving the question away. "Well, that, and a kick to the stomach, but he'll be fine." She looked at Katniss, who was almost sick with worry.

"Oh," she droned shakily.

"Oh, well. He wanted in, so he got in," she answered. After a turn, the Two Girl said, "Welp, here we are." _We're here already?_ Katniss thought, looking at her. _But you still didn't give me a chance to get to know you! _The other girl felt Katniss eyes on her, and she felt like she was sweating. She wished Katniss would look at something else. _Anything_ else! The Two Girl's eyes landed on Peeta. "And there's your Lover Boy," she recited quickly and pointed to Peeta. "Down there. See?" Katniss looked and her eyes found Peeta, who was sitting on a rock away from the others, trying not to attract attention by sharpening a knife.

"Oh, good," Katniss said, but only half-heartedly. She still wanted to talk to the Two Girl, _know_ the Two Girl.

"Well, I must be off," the said girl piped up. "Cato was probably looking for me anyway. He'll probably give me hell for disappearing, and I'm sure you've seen how he is." She started to leave.

"Wait!" Katniss whispered sharply, fearing the others would hear her.

The other girl spun around. "What?"

"You said you would be my ally until Peeta and I got back together."

The other girl smirked. Katniss couldn't understand why though. "So I did," the Two Girl answered. She winked and continued to walk down to the Careers campsite.

_So she_ is _still my ally_. The thought brought a smile to Katniss' face. _An _in_filtrator, my way into the Careers, and to Peeta_.

"It's Clove, by the way," she heard the Career girl call, although she didn't turn around.

_Finally! I have something to go on about her_, Katniss thought.

But to the Two girl, or Clove as she called herself, she didn't know what she'd gotten herself into by telling her her name. She felt her stomach jump with every step toward the lake, and she didn't like it. She was just glad that the further away she got from Katniss, the more she felt like herself. But, at the same time: The further away they were from each other, the more they missed each other...


	6. Into Thin Air

Clove had vanished; for she did not appear the next morning, or the day after. Everywhere Katniss looked Clove was not to be found. She looked down at the lake and did not find Clove there, or at the Cornucopia. She never seemed to be around the other Careers. Her name did not appear in the sky at night, so she had to be alive, but for the past few days, Katniss felt as though she was without an ally. That settled it: Katniss had been betrayed.

At least that's what ran through her mind continuously when Katniss awoke that morning. She also felt something else like guilt, perhaps, about something she couldn't pin down. Why should she feel guilty? After all, she hadn't done anything. Katniss untied herself from the tree and climbed down. _I should start my day now,_ Katniss thought to herself. First, she needed to find her snare to see if there was a reward for her craftiness, and she _was_ rewarded with a nice rabbit.

After finishing breakfast, she began her trek to… somewhere. Even after a few days, Katniss still didn't know the forest enough to know which way she should go. She knew her approximate distance from several important landmarks, for instance the rivers, lake, and Cornucopia, but apart from that she did not know the forest, and it did not know her.

After about an hour of stumbling over tree roots and vines, Katniss began to slip through the forest smoothly with little noise. She stepped on the pine needles that carpeted the forest floor in order to hide her foot prints and to move quietly, whilst avoiding any stray branches that could alert her presence to anyone or anything. Then, suddenly, Katniss stopped and knelt. _Where am I supposed to go now? _Katniss thought. _I have no allies, I'm just wondering about. I'm sure even Peeta_—and there it was. Peeta had _not_ betrayed her! Or at least, Clove said he hadn't. Either way, Peeta was still alive, meaning Clove was still her ally. _Then where is she?_ And Peeta might be, too. She had to find them. Now.

Katniss rose. Where had she last seen the Careers… and Peeta? _The lake,_ Katniss droned to herself. She pivoted and began to jog towards the lake. It took about forty minutes to hop over tree roots, around and over hills and through brush in the forest quietly before she arrived at the lake. Her eyes found Peeta at the banks away from the others. _But Clove still isn't here,_ Katniss noticed. _Wait, who cares? Clove hasn't shown up for days. I should focus on Peeta; he's the only one I know I can trust._

As quietly as she could, Katniss crept down to where Peeta was. Although, she still had the camouflage of some protesting trees and bushes, she had to be careful not to splash any rocks into the lake, or slip herself, on her trek downhill as she moved. When she was about two or three meters away, she dared to speak when—

"Hey, Lover Boy!" Marvel called, cutting her off. Katniss took cover behind a tree. "We're moving out, let's go!"

"We haven't got all day," Cato's commanding voice added.

"Yeah, I'm coming," Peeta replied dutifully. He rose to his feet, staggered some, picked up a knife and half-ran half…_limped_? to join the others.

_Clove was right, he _did_ get a going over,_ Katniss thought as the Careers disappeared. At least he was, for the better part, in _decent_ health and, most importantly, alive, for now. Unsatisfied, Katniss climbed a tree to get a better view of where the Careers were going, but they were already out of sight completely when she got to comfortably high branch. Katniss sighed and climbed down, and when she'd hopped to the bottom, she walked in the opposite direction.

_Great, just great. First, Clove disappears, and now I couldn't even get close enough to talk to Peeta, _Katniss thought. She wandered aimlessly for hours with that running through her mind. She began to feel how tired she was. She was tired of walking, tired of thinking sad, doubtful thoughts, tired of the games. How thirsty she felt. How hungry she was. How dry and starved. Katniss felt thin, like an overstretch shirt, like watery lemonade. She'd emptied her water bottle _hours_ ago. She stopped walking and threw her head back and sighed, closing her eyes. She wanted a break, an un_think_able request in a place that might as well be a tomb. She wished it would rain, pour in buckets. She wished she could have spoken to Peeta, and Clove. _Come on, Clove! I wish you would just show up!_


	7. Il Bacio

"Kat," said a familiar voice that still startled her. She gasped and her eyes flew open at the sound. And there stood no one other than Clove, smirking like she always did. Katniss blinked, and stood there completely dumbfounded. _How does she just appear?_ "Miss me?"

Katniss sighed impatiently, but it didn't escape her notice how relaxed she felt around Clove, how everything dropped temporarily. "You have been gone for three days,"Katniss scolded. Despite her happiness and relief in seeing her, her couldn't deny how abandoned she'd felt. "Where were you?"

"Damn, relax," Clove said, putting a hand on her hip. It was done in a cocky, confident way that Katniss admired. "You're starting to _sound_ like Cato. I've been around."

"I haven't seen you for three days," Katniss repeated.

"Just because _you_ didn't see me doesn't mean I haven't been around. You were at the lake about two hours ago."

_And how do _you_ know that?_

"I was there, I saw you," Clove answered Katniss' inner question. "You were trying to talk to Peeta, and then Cato's im_pat_ient ass led him away. You need to be more careful, by the way. If Cato had seen you, you'd be up shit creek without a paddle." Clove's voice was scolding, almost accusing. "Sure, we're allies, Kat, but I can't protect you from _every_thing when you cut it close, even for Lover Boy."

"Well… you disap_peared_! And 'Lover Boy' has a name; he _is_ my district partner in case you've forgotten."

"Disappearing is better than risking my neck."

Katniss sighed angrily. An argument would get them nowhere. Then, simultaneously, the both of them asked, "Why do you care?"

Clove blinked. Katniss stared for a moment. Each second felt like a long, cold minute. Then Katniss said, "I… I was worried that…" Finding the right words was hard. "…you had left me… ally-less, I mean," she added awkwardly.

"Oh," replied Clove. She looked down at her now-picked-spotless finger nails and picked at them again. "Well, I was always around."

Another moment of uncomfortable silence passed between them, with Clove picking at her nails, _as usual,_ Katniss noticed, and Katniss standing there. Katniss never knew what to do during a silent moment; she was so used to having something to do or having something threatening her that she usually felt fidgety.

Clove looked up, as though she wanted to say something, and then, changing her mind, looked down again at her nails. _How well Clove keeps her nails,_ Katniss said to herself. Clove kept everything about her well: Her long, black hair was back in flyaway-free ponytail, her freckled face was clean, and she always had a strut when she walked, Katniss noticed. The notice her jacket was open, and how menacingly, stellar clean her knives were. It was _spooky_, really, how _clean_ this girl was. But there was something else that was deeper than all of that that Katniss admired…

Katniss found a tree stump not far from where she stood and sat. She chose her next words cautiously. "Why… were _you_… so nervous? Earlier? And where _did_ you go?" she asked delicately.

Clove stopped fidgeting for a moment, and then continued to pick at her nails. Without looking at her she answered, "You were getting too close, and I can't have a dead ally."

"Oh." Katniss looked down.

Clove dared to glance up; she saw a sad Katniss, trying to no avail to cover her emotions. Without thinking about anything but the guilt she felt, Clove joined her quickly and sat on the ground beside her. "What I meant was… if anything happened to you, I'd feel bad for dragging you into this."

_But, why? Aren't I just…just…another tribute in your way?_ Clove still saw the sadness and the confusion in Katniss.

"Listen," Clove began to explain. She put an arm around Katniss to comfort her. She lowered her voice. "There are two kinds of tribute in this arena: The tributes that fight for glory and power, and the tributes that fight for their lives. You know this. Careers only fight as the first kind, the glory-seeking kind. I don't want you to be killed by a tribute who—" Clove shuddered, trying desperately to compose herself. "—a tribute that… is only in it for the money. And I don't want them to capture you and turn _you_ into one of them. No, don't be like me in these games with nothing but _this_, Kat. Find some way to get out of here and live happily ever after. With… _Peeta_, even, if he makes you happy—" It didn't escape Katniss notice how Clove seemed to spit his name. "—and you can get him out of here, too, because I know you don't care about the money. You're just trying to get back to your family and sister, and I think that's, you know, poetic and all, but shit. You can only do that if you're careful is all I mean."

Clove had never revealed this much about what she was feeling since they'd first met properly in the tree. It was true that Clove was a mystery to Katniss, but that mystery is what made Clove so attractive and al_lur_ing to Katniss, and she found herself staring at her. But now, she had to ask. "Is… that why you didn't murder me at the bloodbath?"

Clove looked at Katniss, and it didn't escape her notice how close their faces were. "In truth… in truth I tried to, but… I couldn't do it."

"Why?" Katniss asked automatically.

Clove stared back at her. She couldn't… she didn't…_know_. Sometimes you just _don't_ _know_, and you can't say what your feelings are inside. In all of Clove's sea of secrets, she couldn't think of what to say, how to explain all of it.

She didn't even know if she should…but she did anyway. She pulled Katniss too her and kissed her softly. It was wonderful; it was the kind of bliss you get when you know you're doing the right thing. And Katniss kissed her back. She couldn't contradict the fact that she _had_ thought of this, several times while Clove was away, but it didn't matter. None of it mattered. Not Peeta, not Cato, not Haymitch—who's probably drinking his head off—not Effie, not the Games, not Snow, not even Prim, right now, mattered. All that mattered was her and Clove…


	8. Cooked

…The kiss seemed to last forever. Katniss wished it had, but Clove knew it had to stop sometime, but not before Katniss let a euphonious, delicious-sounding moan slip past her lips, making Clove go back in for one more second before pulling away breathlessly. Clove rested her forehead against Katniss. She was unsure how she felt for the girl, but she knew what_ever_ she felt was incontrovertible—she _really_ liked this Girl on Fire. Maybe it was her _fiery_ spirit, maybe it was her purity. Whatever it was, it was there and Clove couldn't help herself.

Katniss felt the same. She always knew that there was something underneath Clove's hard exterior that pulled her in. Her personality was still the same though; Clove still had a dominating quality about her that was even more pronounced in the kiss, but that's just… Clove.

"Hmm," Clove said. She pulled back to look at Katniss and smiled. Katniss smiled back. "Kat," Clove asked.

"Yeah?"

"Can you not ask 'why'?" Clove chuckled. "I don't have _all_ the answers."

Katniss giggled. "Okay," she answered.

Clove kissed her again quickly and pulled away. She didn't want to leave, but she knew there were things she had to take care of. She cupped Katniss' cheek in her hand. "I have to go back now, Kat, okay?" Clove said.

"Okay," Katniss replied sadly.

Clove kissed her forehead and stood to leave. She took one, two, three steps away before she looked back at Katniss one more time. Katniss stood said nothing. There was nothing to say, so after Katniss climbed a tree, Clove left quietly.

When she arrived back at the lake, she knew this was a whole different ball game. It was time to put the mask that concealed her emotions back on, and _poof_, she was all business. None of the Careers were here yet, but they'd be back soon. Knowing this, Clove found firewood and pine needles to make a fire. She lit it with the matches Glitter had thrown at Marvel after their fight. She also knew she needed something to show for her disappearances. Katniss hadn't seen her for days, but the Careers had. She would show up and disappear, as she had for the past three days, but she always came back with an explanation. She needed yet another excuse to explain where she'd been. Food was preferable, but it was neither the easiest to come by, but nor at the same time _very_ hard to get, and it may not be acceptable for Cato this time. Both she and Cato knew the level of difficulty for obtaining food was fair for Clove. As if on cue, a brush rustled not far away, startling Clove into drawing a knife… and a groosling wandered into view. Clove scoffed. "You're kidding me," she sighed. This was just _too_ easy. With a flick of her wrist the poor bird was dead and Clove dragged it back to the fire. After unfeathering, cleaning, and stabbing a branch through the groosling, Clove had prepared the bird for rotisserie. She needed to add more fuel to the fire so she got more firewood and needles.

_BOOM!_ A cannon sounded. Clove wasn't worried. She continued to add to the fire until it blazed again. _BOOM!_ Another cannon sounded. Clove hesitated. There _must_ have been a fight. She continued to prepare the bird for eating, but the distant shouts of tributes still unnerved her some. _Just remember what Mother always said—Keep calm and carry on,_ Clove thought as she set up the bird to be rotated. _Everything's fine. Katniss is fine, I'm fine, surely Cato's fine. So just relax for now._ But the shouts came closer, and Clove rotated the bird nervously.

She heard footsteps, they were too boisterous to deny. She knew Cato, the boy that protected and frightened her, was walking—no strutting, really—impatiently across the field past the Cornucopia to the lake. She could see his face in her mind. She heard the others shouting somewhere behind him. She heard Peeta's voice, too. Clove rotated the bird again. Fatty oils and blood dripped from the bird into the fire, reflecting just how Clove felt with every step Cato took to get closer and closer to her. He was getting closer and closer, she knew it was coming. She closed her eyes and took a deep, shuddering, shaky breath before Cato was close enough. _You and I are the same, little bird; just like you, I'm cooked,_ Clove thought, staring at the poor creature in front of her. Those thoughts, of course did not comfort Clove when she heard Cato stop a few meters behind her.

She knew they were here; she didn't even bother to look up…


	9. Keeping Cool

...She knew they were here; she didn't even bother to look up, but Cato's presence was too close to deny. Clove almost flinched when he said. "You just gonna pretend not to notice me?" Cato said in a low voice.

Clove stopped rotating the groosling over the fire, but didn't turn around. She hesitated in her words. "I was just waiting for you to say something first," she answered, trying to keep her voice from wavering.

"Really?" Cato replied. He walked around to face her. He looked exactly as Clove pictured: powerful, cruel, and pissed-off. His huge muscular arms were folded across his broad-shouldered chest, his piercingly cold grey-blue eyes cut into Clove's own brown-green ones, to the point where it hurt and she blinked to look away, and his hard face was twisted into a frown with his lips set in a thin line. Cato was just as much as a man to her as her father, before she left. Both Cato and Clove's father had the same power about them. He looked down at her menacingly, daring her not to answer his next question. "And where the hell you been?"

Clove looked up, remembering it was better to face Cato than her father, and answered with a shrug, "Around."

Cato, of course, said nothing and waited.

"I got us food though," Clove added quickly.

Cato, of course, said nothing and waited.

The shouts of the other Careers were closer; they were just across the Cornucopia field. "So… are we all still seven of us, or less now?" Clove asked in a small voice.

"You'd know if you were there," Cato answered abruptly. "So, where were you?"

"I had… things to do—"

"Like what?"

"I had to find… food!" Clove said, trying to build her confidence to stand up to him. "I knew you all were only hunting for tributes and not hunting for food, so I went to go get some, and—"

"Well, you've been disappearing too much for my taste," Cato interrupted. He looked away from her and walked to the edge of the lake, the water lapping at his boots. "If you're going to be in this alliance, I suggest you _act_ like you are. Otherwise, you won't be any use to us."

"No more than you. You just walk around giving the orders."

Cato turned around.

The others came closer. Clove could hear their laughter. "At least when I leave, I'm doing my job without an attitu—"

"Attitude reflects leadership in this alliance," Cato broke out violently. "And discipline seems to be a thing you've lacked lately—"

"At least I'm _doing_ my _job_!" Clove stood now. "Someone _needs_ to feed us! We've got to be fed somehow if you want this alliance to last the week, the night!"

"Well you could tell us _when_ you go on your little scavenger hunts," Cato said, sitting away from her.

Clove said no more. She didn't know what happened between her and Cato. She used to always cheer him up and calm him down when they were younger. Maybe she still could, _if it weren't for the Games, _Clove thought. If the Games hadn't come between them maybe it would be easier between them.

The Careers filed in. "Hey, what's all the yelling about?" asked a skinny boy with brown hair holding a spear. This was Marvel from District One. He never truly got mad at anyone, and he always had a smile on his face. He punched Cato playfully on the shoulder a few times before setting his spear and backpack down.

Then, in walked Glimmer, or as Clove called her, Glitter, to irritate her. Glimmer was never nice to Clove. She had blonde hair, lighter than Cato's, and green eyes, was tall and beautiful, like those charming, pretty girls you only see in magazines, but she only ever smiled when she was hanging from Cato's arm. Cato never gave her reason or inclination to think it was acceptable to do so, but neither did he seem too annoyed by her actions or company. He mainly ignored her, and only spoke to her when she spoke to him first... sometimes. "Oh, look who decided to show up," she said, not missing a chance to throw an insult in Clove's face.

"Oh sit down, Glitter—" Clove meant to return.

"And she brought food! Yes! I'm starving, thanks," Marvel said, all in the same breath as he approached Clove.

Peeta came in silently and sat in his usual quiet area closest to the water. His ash blond hair and blue eyes were kinder than Cato's but Clove hated him nonetheless; after all, he wanted Katniss, _her_ Katniss.

The District Four tributes did _not_ return; Clove said nothing about this. She looked at the groosling and continued to rotate it over the fire. Clove missed Nym, the girl from District Four. She could talk to her about anything, and she knew she could keep a secret, even about her and Katniss. She once took a black eye from Cato for making an excuse for one of Clove's disappearances to check on Katniss. Now she was gone, and Clove grieved her death silently without tears as she took the groosling away from the fire to cut it up.

"You okay?" Marvel asked. Clove looked up into his unsmiling, concerned face.

"Yeah," Clove said. She looked over at Cato who was too busy being distracted by Glimmer, although Cato still wore a frown, and Peeta was looking across the lake. She took a knife out of her jacket and began to cut at the bird. "It's just that… Nym's gone," she whispered.

"Oh, no, Nym is alive," Marvel responded. Clove looked up. "She's injured, but alive. She's still back there… mourning her partner's death. She was hit in the leg during the fight, but it was her being upset over Bey that made Cato decide she was too weak to move on."

Clove immediately wished she hadn't said anything. Abandonment was worse than death. If Nym _had_ died, at least she would _not_ have died alone. But no, Nym was _left_ to die alone, and it ached Clove that she couldn't go out there and console her. Maybe if Bey, her partner, was alive, she'd still be here for Clove to talk to. She could always talk to Marvel, but it wouldn't be the same; she was already so close to Nym, and Marvel would hit the ceiling if he found out about here and Katniss. _Oh Katniss,_ thought Clove._ If you find Nym out there, spare her. She's the only other ally we have…_


	10. In Honor of the Girl on Fire

_"Sir, it would seem that she is _al_most at the edge," said a Gamemaker to Seneca Crane. "And it seems that the District Two female is headed in the opposite direction, putting her two kilometers from the nearest tribute."_

_Seneca Crane looked at his monitor and pondered this. "Maybe their alliance has ended," Seneca replied, still watching the girl on fire. "Well, let's turn Katniss around…"_

* * *

The next morning, Katniss waited dutifully for Clove to show, and occupied her time by looking for food and water near the base of her tree. She allowed herself a clearance of twenty feet from the tree. Again, she was tired, and she hadn't had a drink of water in twelve hours. Her time was of the essence, as was her vitality. _Shouldn't Clove be here by now?_ Katniss thought.

But she didn't ponder on that too much when she heard a snapping sound. _What was that?_ She heard again, but it was more like a… _crackling_ sound. Like a raging fire. She looked around and then she saw it: a wall of fire was tearing through the forest, destroying everything in its path! Katniss ran, she moved as quickly as she could, but the fire consumed everything around her. She watched as the animals around her leaped and scampered to safety and tried to keep up. It took no time for her to realize that this was no tribute's campfire gone out of control. It was uniform, it was _planned, it was…_ man-made, machine-made. Gamemaker-made.

Katniss choked on the smoke hanging above her. It seemed to blind her and burn her insides. Katniss fell on her hands and knees and vomited everything she had in her stomach. She couldn't have felt more hopeless. She had nothing left from the food she'd eaten the previous day. She looked up in time to see a fireball flying toward her she managed to duck out of the way as it exploded with a _POW!_ above her head. She ducked under a ledge, but not fast enough as another fireball skimmed her calf. Katniss yelped in pain. She looked at her leg. This injury was beyond her skill to heal and the sight and smell of burning skin alone was almost enough to make her vomit again, and the pain was unbearable. Unbearable. She heard as another fireball hurled toward her. She moved and—_POW!_— it exploded as she rolled away. _I have to get out of this zone!_ Katniss staggered to her feet and stumbled away. She heard fire hissing and exploding around her but she had no idea where to go. She could barely see with this soul-sucking smoke. The animals that were once her compass were now long gone, she only ran. It was the only way to keep from falling down and becoming one with the flames. Another fireball came; she didn't hear it until it was up close…


	11. Trapped

… and a force did hit her, but it was not the smoldering fireball that exploded several feet away. Katniss fell to the ground hard. She wasn't hurt, but she _was_ disoriented. She looked up to see a figure sitting a few feet next her, who fell themselves by the force of just pushing _Katniss_ out of the way. The smog fog made it difficult for Katniss to see who it was. She wanted to thank them and see who it was, but before she could investigate, the figure stumbled away into the smoky forest.

Katniss heard more cracking, and turned around in time to see a burning tree falling almost on top of her. She rolled just out of the way of being crushed, but not far enough away from being trapped. The branches surrounded her and now she was pinned—a sitting duck! Everywhere she looked, fire and smoke surrounded her still. She managed to move her limbs, but it was torture to move her calf. She had to move. She had to! _Do this! s_he thought to herself. She pushed the tree off of her as best she could whilst trying to pull her legs forward. Then, she would try her best to support the branch with her leg whilst pushing her body forward. The work was extraneous, and the lack of oxygen only exacerbated the problem, but she was determined to get loose before the Gamemakers shot at her again. _Why _are_n't they shooting at me?_ A few more hand holds and she was free and ran in the direction of the figure.

Then, she saw it—one of the rivers was a few meters out of this zone and, above all, it was _wa_ter. She ran to the river and splashed and sloshed her way in. To say it soothed her calf tremendously would be an understatement. Katniss closed her eyes and sighed, wanting to swim here forever, wanting to drink here forever, wanting to slip under the surface and never come up again. Swimming was like flying, the closest _she'd_ ever come to it. It wouldn't matter if it didn't rain for twenty years—so long as she could stay here and fly, but she couldn't, not when she heard _them_.

She looked up to see none other than the Career Clan whooping and hollering like the arrogant bunch they were. Katniss panicked to get away. In her haste, she thrashed about in the water as she climbed out and they heard her. That was when Katniss saw Clove. They both froze. Then Peeta saw her and froze. The Careers kept running, and it didn't escape Katniss' notice that they weren't moving as quickly as they used to. _Maybe they were caught up in the fire, too, _she thought as she ran. She didn't move quickly either. Now that she was out of the water, pain came rushing back into her leg, reminding her that she wouldn't be able to get far. She looked back—they were closer, now. "We're coming to get you!" Glimmer's shrill voice sang out. Out of all of them Cato was the closest. Unlike the other Careers, who all seemed playful but still arrogant, Katniss saw that Cato was all business, and he came barreling at her as though he could run for weeks. She looked forward again, in enough time to see she ran almost _smack_ into a tree, which she ducked. _I have to get out of here!_

After a few turns, Katniss saw that she was trapped: A ledge stopped her from going further. She had but one choice—climb. She looked around none of these trees were pine but she'd have to make it work. "Where you going, baby? Where you going?" she heard Marvel laugh. She made her choice and climbed as fast as she could, dragging her injured leg. Cato was closer now, only a few meters away after she'd climbed ten feet. _Don't stop, don't _ever_ stop! Never!_ she thought as she climbed. It was torture on her leg, but it was life or death. The rest of the Careers came into the clearing. She kept climbing and didn't look down until she felt comfortable atop a sturdy branch to rest.

She heard Marvel cackle as though this was the funniest thing he'd ever seen whilst the Careers circled their prey like vultures. Clove was among them, joking and laughing and taunting Katniss. Only Peeta and Cato seemed not to join in on the action. Katniss was almost furious when she saw Clove acting like… a Career. She might have been playing a part, and she might have been a traitor to Katniss.

"Going somewhere?" Clove asked, smirking.

Katniss held onto the tree. "Well, how are you?" Katniss responded.

"We're well, and yourself?" Cato replied.

"It's been too hot for my taste."

"Has it, now?" Clove said.

Katniss could hear the Capitol's laughter. For what, she wasn't sure—this pointless conversation, or the happiness of the Careers' fans? Katniss realized all might not be lost. Sure, the Careers were bigger and more powerful, but they were, no doubt, heavier too. She had gravity on her side. The realization made Katniss smile. "It's much clearer up here," she announced. "Why don't you come up?"

"I think I will," said Cato decidedly. He approached the base of the tree.

"Take this, Cato," Glimmer offered, presenting a bow and arrows. _Katniss'_ bow and arrows! The very thing she should have either gotten or died for after the countdown. But no, she _ran_! Now this blonde chick has what should have been _hers_! Katniss was, again furious. _Fur_ious. There must be a way for her to get them back, and she would, no matter _what_.

"No," Cato refused. "I'll do better with a sword." He began to climb; the tree shook horrifically struggling to support his weight. Katniss held tighter to the tree for fear of falling as she climbed higher away from him. The Careers cheered Cato on.

"Go, Cato, get up there Cato!"

"Come on, Cato!"

"Kill her, Cato, come on, kill her, Cato! Just kill her!"

And Peeta looked at all of them with disgust.

That's when Katniss heard the snapping. He was close, he would fall! She stooped climbing and looked down. Cato looked up. "I'm coming for you," He said, but it was too late—_CRACK!—_and down went the branch, Cato, and all. Katniss tried her best to suppress the cackle she held in her throat, but failed miserably. She hoped he'd broke something, but Cato stood and ranted.

"Lemme try," Glimmer said. She began to climb. Katniss stayed where she was, and waited until Glimmer was ten feet under her. _Snap! _Glimmer gasped. She looked up at a smirking Katniss and scowled. Glimmer was smart; she wasn't going down like Cato. She climbed down and loaded and arrow on the bow, raised it and shot at her. To say she missed would be an understatement. The arrow went up… and came back down. Katniss caught it between her fingers. She waved it above their heads.

"Give me that," Cato spat, snatching the bow from Glimmer.

"Hit her," Clove and Glimmer said. "_Hit_ her."

He loaded an arrow and shot. The arrow embedded itself in the tree a few feet below Katniss. Glimmer groaned. Marvel, for once, was silent.

"Maybe you should throw the sword," came Katniss' taunting words.

Cato looked at Clove. "Throw something," he ordered. Everyone looked at her.

Clove scoffed. "And loose a perfectly good knife?" she answered. She sat down protestantly.

Marvel looked back up the tree and scowled. "Maybe _you_ should bring _your_self down here, and we'll settle this the old fashioned way," Marvel countered Katniss.

"We'll see just what that eleven means then!" Clove added.

"Yeah, you bitch!" Glimmer said, joining in on the assault. "You think you're so much _better_ than us, Twelve, why _don't_ you come down? What did you _do_ to… to _deserve_ that eleven? What did you do, huh?" Glimmer paused, waiting for an answer. Katniss didn't answer. She didn't feel like she'd deserved it either. She ran from the Cornucopia when she should have fought for the right of those arrows. She ignored perfectly good advice and did whatever she felt like. She lied to her sister, telling her she'd come home when she knew she wouldn't. All she did was piss off a room full of Gamemakers. And if Glimmer knew about her leg, she would have, literally, added insult to injury. She hung her head in defeat and let Glimmer continue to slander her viciously with her harangue. "You didn't do anything!" She continued. Glimmer showed no mercy. "Not to deserve it! You can't fight—'cause you don't know how—you have no weapon, and in case you didn't notice, you are trapped. You were just a silly girl who wore silly costumes and a big pretty dress. Face it: there's nothing special about you, nothing eleven-worthy. Nothing! So, what _did_ you do? Did you beg, or did you strip down and do more than just _twirl_ for Seneca Crane?!"

"What _did_ you do, Princess of Cheats?!" Marvel agreed.

The Careers all made obscene gestures and insulted Katniss degradingly while Cato watched his allies with disgust. Fighting was a waste of energy, and he knew that. No, he just stood back and let them spit empty insults at Katniss, while trying to think of a plan. Thankfully, Peeta beat him to it. "Hey," he said. "Hey! HEYYY!" The Careers all spun around bewildered to face him. Hadn't Peeta always been… the quiet guy? "Let's just wait her out," he suggested. "She's gotta come down sometime. It's either that, or starve to death," he said logically.

Everyone looked to Cato while he pondered this. He had no other options: He couldn't climb; he knew the others probably couldn't either; they _could_ light the tree on fire, or cut it down, but Katniss would figure out a way to get to another tree before she came to any real danger. Mighty Cato sighed, defeated. "Okay," he said. He went to go find food. "Somebody make a fire." And he stalked away.

Clove stared up to Katniss in the tree, glaring with the rest of the Careers. Katniss glared back down at her and demanded an explanation, silently, of course, because, unfortunately, now wasn't the time. Clove reminded her of this as she walked away with the rest of the Careers. She was trapped, and she had only so much time until they figured out a way to get her down. Her loyalty to Clove started to shift. Did she not laugh at her with the others, insult her with the others? It was true that she didn't attack Katniss, but it hurt her that she let them and joined them in repudiating and disgracing her. She could have been like Peeta, held back and said nothing like Peeta. She didn't _have_ to join in. Glimmer's words even began to settle in. They embedded themselves into her mind like daggers, but nothing hurt more than knowing she was right. How _was_ she going to get out of this one, especially with that _leg_? Katniss began to cry quietly. She didn't mean to, but she couldn't help it: Her leg was on fire and her mind was _swimming_. She took her water bottle out of her bag and tried to pour water on the injury, trying to recreate the feeling of when she swam in the river. It worsened extremely, _intensifying_ the pain as opposed to suppressing it. The pain wasn't as bad as the Careers assault, but it was pain, nonetheless. The Careers reassembled below her. "Scum of the Games," she heard Glimmer slur at her as she lit a fire. She looked down in time to see Glimmer spit at the base of the tree. Katniss choked back a sob as more traitor tears slipped from her eyes and slid down her face. She knew she'd never hear the end of their laughter if they heard her crying. Katniss pulled herself on to the branch and tied herself in. She put her bottle away and cried herself to sleep as the Careers began to relax. The last image she saw was of Clove, laughing at her. No mercy. No shame.


	12. A Good Plan

Sometime later, Katniss smelt smoke and her eyes flew open. She did not see a burning forest, or fireballs, or falling trees. The forest was dark. She looked down to see that the Careers had built a fire. She rolled her eyes to herself—she'd watched Glimmer light the kindling on fire. Glimmer. Glimmer... then, Katniss hated herself: She'd _let_ Glimmer make her cry; she'd _let_ Glimmer get inside of her and make her feel worthless; she'd let her in—let her get inside and destroy herself. She'd let _Clove_ in, and she let it kill her when she laughed at her. And worst of all, she let all of Panem see that she was weak; let them see the tears; let them see that people could manipulate her and that she would succumb. She let Prim see that she couldn't win. And that hurt the worst. She watched the Careers below her, comfortable and confident talking amongst themselves like this was a vacation.

Katniss was all rage again, but she knew this time she had to control those emotions, disipline herself to remember it all meant nothing. Glimmer meant nothing. Peeta meant nothing. Clove meant nothing. She would _not_ be taken advantage of again. She thought this firmly while taking a deep breath, letting them all go. _Forget them, and forget her too_, she thought whilst Glimmer snuggled close to an unresponsive Cato and giggled. She sighed she looked around at the trees. Stupid forest. Stupid arena. She heard soft chiming, and looked up and saw a parachute gliding toward her, chirping softly the way the parachutes did when it wanted only one tribute to hear its presence. It landed a few feet above her and ceased its chirping immediately. She reached up quietly to see what was attached to it. She was careful not to make any noise, so they wouldn't hear. Not like they would—they were having too much fun. She saw a canister of something. She clicked it open to see a smaller canister with a message laid on top. It was from Haymitch:

APPLY GENEROUSLY AND STAY ALIVE  
-H

She didn't understand his message until she screwed the lid off of the canister to see an opaque, semi-transparent jell. She tapped it with her finger and the touch alone seemed to sooth her fingers after climbing the rough bark of the trees in the arena. She rubbed some on both of her hands. The effect was magical! Her hands went from angry red to baby soft pink instantly, and her hands felt and looked more delicate and feminine than they've ever looked. She then took more of the ointment and applied it to her calf. A sigh slipped from her throat—it couldn't be helped. The pain stopped im_me_diately, like she was never burned. She applied it until her entire calf was cured, saving the rest of the ointment for later. "Thank you," she whispered, to Haymitch, to the sponsors, to the Capitol, to the world. More weight was carried on those two words than any other she'd said in her life. _Thank you..._

After a few minutes, Katniss was sick of overhearing the Careers' conversation. It was mostly Glimmer's monologue that was wasting perfectly good, clean air, and then either Marvel or Clove would intercede now and then. Cato and Peeta, as usual, hardly said anything. Peeta would always look up the tree and try to see Katniss now and then. Katniss looked around at the tree tops, bored, until her eyes met those of a possum, and she looked away. Wait. She looked back quickly. _Those weren't possum eyes._ She looked harder. It was a tribute. She saw another set of eyes—a pair of tributes, sitting in the tree adjacent to her! One of them inched closer. Katniss moved to get away, and then remembered she was strapped in. Then she saw a hand, pointing at something above her head Katniss looked up to see a _huge_ sphere dangling from a branch above her. She looked back at her neighbors. The other tribute pointed down at the Careers camped below. She climbed up quietly to see what that thing was. She had to be careful—the branches were getting too slender even for her. She felt the texture and it felt like paper, and she heard a very distinct humming noise over Glimmer's complaints about how the forest fire burnt her hair. Then it clicked in Katniss mind: this was a wasp nest, most likely—most hauntingly—a tracker jacker nest, sneaky Capitol-engineered, gold-bodied wasps that when threatened have sensors to track the attacker down. And as if that wasn't enough, the stings were worse. Since the wasps are genetically engineered, the venom content was enough to kill you, literally. First, once the stinger penetrated your skin, it would cause searing, almost unbearable pain. Next, the sting itself would swell to the size of a plum. Lastly, the venom would cause very powerful hallucinations, and, if you were so unlucky as to be stung enough times, you would die. The only reason they weren't swarming is because they were sedated by the forest fire smoke, and probably the Careers' campfire smoke as well. This was the weapon Katniss would use to defeat the Career Clan.

_Well what am I waiting for?_ Katniss thought, drawing her knife and placing it on the branch. But she realized she should probably wait until either they slept or for something loud to sound off. _Maybe the Careers will get in another pointless argument_, she thought, holding back a chuckle. As though on cue, the anthem sounded and the fallen tributes faces began to appear in the sky. Katniss looked down at the Careers, who continued to talk over the music, disinterested. _It's now or never!_ Katniss used the serrated edge to saw back and forth awkwardly until she'd made a solid groove. She had to hurry the anthem was halfway through. She had cut a little less than halfway through the branch. The Careers all laughed as a group to some joke Marvel said, allowing for Katniss to saw louder and faster. By the time the anthem had ended, she had sawed about three-quarters of the way through the branch before she hears a small crack. Katniss gasped, hoping she hadn't sawed too much—the realization hit her that if the branch fell now, she wouldn't be able to see where the wasps would be in reference to her when the nest exploded. She wished she could drop it on Glimmer's head now, but knowing the plan may backfire, she stayed put and went to sleep…

_She heard them snickering before they even she even opened her eyes. When she did, she found herself falling out of the tree, and then yanked up by her ankle, suspended in my air. She screamed—pointlessly—knowing the worst was only to come. "We didn't even do anything to you yet," Clove's voice said. She came around to face her, a rope in her hand. "Aw, poor, poor Katniss. Too weak to defend herself, as usual," Clove continued, walking around the tree, tying Katniss in. "Too bad Lover Boy's not gonna save you!"_

_Katniss struggled to get down and strangle Clove, but it was fruitless. "Where is he?" she demanded. "What did you do to him?"_

_Peeta came around along with the rest of the Careers. "I'm right here," he said casually, smirking while the others laughed; while _Clove_ laughed. Katniss couldn't believe her eyes. Everything was ruined: her alliance fell apart in her mind and her confidence was gone. Banished. Suddenly, Clove grabbed Peeta and kissed him smack on the mouth. Clove moaned as Peeta intensified the kiss and kissed back. Katniss couldn't believe it; she turned her head away, fighting back the tears. The Careers cheered them on like the Careers they were._

_"Now," Clove began, turning Katniss face back to face her. "Why don't we finish this the proper way, shall we?" Katniss didn't know what she meant until she felt a stabbing pain in her side. Katniss cried out as Clove cackled at her. The lot of them laughed at her. Peeta laughed. "Aww! Is Katniss cwying? Poor Baby Katniss," Clove laughed. Clove stabbed her again two more times until Katniss couldn't scream or cry anymore. She felt the blade against her neck. Katniss looked at Clove as a few more tears slipped out of her eyes. Clove smirked. "Game over."_

_And Katniss felt a slice—_


	13. Waivering Faith

_"Kat…Katniss…!"_

She was shaking. No, she was _being_ shaken. "Katniss!" a voice almost yelled. Her eyes shot open. She found herself looking into the face of Clove who was clutching her shoulders. "Katniss!" she whispered sharply. Katniss looked around wildly. It was _still_ nighttime? That can't be right. She felt herself sweating; she was panting; her hands were clutched into fists as though she was holding on to sanity. "Are you alright?" Clove whispered more softly this time. She reached a hand up to Katniss face to calm her down.

Katniss turned away. "Don't touch me!" she hissed, trying to pull away, but, of course, she was strapped in. "Go away!"

"What?" said Clove.

"You heard me, leave me alone," Katniss replied, swatting Clove's hands away.

"Not so loud," Clove whispered, almost hissed. She was on watch, and couldn't afford for them to wake up now. "The hell's gotten into you?"

"Y-you! You're just like them. All of them!" Katniss hissed.

"What?" Clove repeated.

"Don't play dumb! You're just like your friends down there. You're one hundred percent Career!" Katniss explained sobbingly. "When Glimmer insulted me you let her. You let them all insult me, laugh at me, like you gave them a free pass, because you laughed with them!"

"Katniss, you know well enough why I _had_ to let them—"Clove began.

"But you didn't have to join in!" Katniss interrupted angrily. "You didn't have to insult me with them, Peeta's on my side, isn't he? He didn't join in! He hung back and kept quiet! He didn't laugh or speak or… anything. You didn't have to—" she couldn't continue. She felt all of her rage and agony building within her and before she could stop them, tears fell from her eyes.

Clove felt her own anger vanish when she saw Katniss began to break down before her. _No, don't cry! Don't cry!_ she thought frantically. She was unsure of what to do or say. Katniss obviously wouldn't let her touch her, so she did her best to console and soothe her. "K-Katniss," she stammered. "Shh, shh, you were right. I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to—of_fend_ you or anything." Katniss continued to cry, ignoring her. "Shit, Kat, please, shush, you know why I had to!" she whispered. "As a… _Career_, if I didn't laugh along, Cato would _sense_ something. Peeta had the—the _right_ not to play along because Twelve isn't a district—I mean, no, I meant a—a _Career_ district! But I am a Career, I have to lie, I have to pretend that I have no connection to you. It would be…what's the word? Suspicious, it would be suspicious if I didn't play along. You have to understand—" Clove didn't know how to continue. She didn't think Katniss was listening, and why should she? She tried again anyway. "You have to… remember that I have to pretend I have no…connection with you in order to keep us both alive."

Katniss continued to sob. "But you didn't have to join in," she finally said. "You could have…" she turned to look at Clove, whose expression was soft and worried and concerned about her. It was enough to make Katniss sob even worse, and she turned away again. Seeing Katniss cry even more almost brought Clove to tears. Clove shook herself. Crying wasn't going to solve anything, and the last thing Clove wanted was to have the both of them bawling. _No, this isn't about what I want,_ Clove told herself. _This is about Katniss and making Katniss feel better._ "You could have picked at your nails at least," Katniss managed to finish. "The way you always do when you don't know what to say."

"What? I do _not_ pick at my—"

"Oh, come on Clove, your nails are spotless," Katniss interceded. "You're always so… clean. Everything about you is clean, except your word. You don't—" Katniss felt Clove's hands on her shoulders. Visibly, Katniss seemed to calm down. This was what Katniss' father, and coincidentally, Gale used to do when Katniss hit the ceiling, and it worked.

"Shh…" Clove whispered softly. "Easy, easy…" With a shaky hand, Clove touched Katniss cheek. She leaned into her hand as Clove's thumb stroked her face.

Tears still fell from her eyes. She had stopped shaking, but she was still in disbelief, still disoriented. "Where did you go, Clove?" Katniss choked out. "When you disappeared, I thought you had lied and that I'd never see you again."

Clove felt herself begin to sob. She swallowed it down and shook her head. "I don't know," she said. She kissed her temple. "Everywhere. South to the lake, west to the rivers, the Cornucopia with the Careers, I-I was doing work; I had to help them hunt, and convince them. All the while, I was thinking of you." She reached another hand to Katniss' other cheek and kissed her forehead. "Just you…" she kissed her cheek. Then her jaw line. Then her throat. Katniss moaned. "Shh." Clove went back up and captured her lips in a heated kiss, and she was delighted when she felt her kiss back. Katniss felt Clove's hands go everywhere: her back, in her hair, on her face. Clove broke the kiss, only to kiss her face again softly and sweetly, to kiss the tears away. She kissed everywhere: her eyes, her cheeks, her nose, everywhere her skin was exposed was where Clove kissed before returning to her lips again. "Don't cry, Kat," she whispered against her lips. "Don't cry."

Katniss felt herself grow warmer at the words. The kisses became more intense and Katniss felt something inside of her that drew her closer to Clove. But Clove, trying to keep her head, pulled away cautiously. "Not here," she managed to breathe out. "Maybe later…"

Then Katniss remembered. "Clove, I have to warn you—look up."

She looked. "At what?" She looked up and she didn't see anything.

Katniss looked up, too. "Uh, the glasses; put them on," she told Clove. "I don't know if you can see, but I can. See that… thing up there?" She pointed at the sphere hanging above them.

Clove put her night-vision glasses on and looked. Her eyes went wide at the sight of it. "What is _that?_"

"That is a tracker jacker nest," Clove explained. "I am going to drop that on the Careers, and I was going to drop it on _all_ of you, but I see that you're sorry, and I want you to get away before… I finish the job," she finished shakily.

Clove looked at her. "You were going to kill me," she said. She pulled away from Katniss. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "And what about Lover Boy, you were gonna kill him, too."

Katniss looked down. "I was angry. I-it wasn't even my idea."

"…what?" Clove asked.

Katniss took a deep breath. "Someone," she began. "…Someone tried to warn _me_ that it was up there. And I was angry, so I thought I would use it against you, especially Glimmer," she added with disgust. "Especially her."

"Hmm," Clove said, tapping her finger against her knee. "I would have dropped it on her, too." She took off the glasses.

"Well, all that matters is that you have to get out of here," Katniss added quickly.

"Okay," said Clove. She slid off of the branch and jumped down to the next one.

"Wha—Clove, wait!" Katniss begged.

Clove looked up. "What's wrong?"

"Aren't you going to say goodbye to me?"

Clove chuckled. "Goodbye, Kat." She continued down.

"Wait! Are you mad?"

Clove was quiet for a moment. "Y-yes," she said finally. "A little bit." It was quiet for a moment, and then Clove continued down. Katniss waited until she heard Clove land at the bottom before she let out a sigh. Whether it was from relief or fear she didn't know. All she knew is that she feared that she lost Clove's trust…

* * *

When dawn came about an hour later, Katniss felt something hit her shoulder. She looked up to see the pair in the tree. It was Rue, and another girl, a Career whom Katniss hadn't seen for a while. "Rue?" Katniss whispered. Rue smiled and pointed up at the nest again. Katniss looked up, and down at Clove. She had to find a way to warn Clove before she dropped the nest. She had gone back down to go to sleep whilst Glimmer went on guard, who, being the excellent watch she was, fell asleep. She scraped some of the bark off of the tree and dropped it near her. It missed Clove by a few inches. She tried two more times until a piece hit her shoulder. Clove woke with a start, knife in her hand ready to pounce. "Shh, Clove," Katniss whispered. Clove looked up. "Go," Katniss said. Clove nodded. She went to Peeta to wake him up. Katniss looked at Rue one last time and nodded before she went to climb. Rue and the Career melted back into the tree. Katniss made it up to the branch and heard whispering, then rustling in the tree next to her, then one further away, then another. Katniss almost laughed. _That's_ what Rue got a _seven_ for? Come on, she should have gotten higher than that. Meanwhile, she saw the Career girl jump down and walk over to Clove and a now awake Peeta. She whispered something to them before they all took off quietly in another direction.

Now that everyone was out of the way, Katniss began to cut the branch again. She had almost gotten all the way through when she heard buzzing. They were awake! She began to cut faster, but not before she felt a sharp pain in her neck. Katniss yelped out and her hand reached up for her neck automatically. She pulled out the stinger and let it fall to the ground. She sawed again, but she felt another stinger in her cheek, then her knee from when she pulled her pant leg up to cure her calf. She pulled the stingers out, but two more wasps stung her hands. Finally, she sawed through the branch and pushed it as far away from herself as possible. It caught once or twice on a few branches on the way down before it stopped halfway down the tree. The nest shook but it did not go down. _Oh, come on!_ she thought. She threw the knife at it, and the nest split some. A tracker jacker came up and stung her elbow. She pulled out the stinger and tried to think of another way to get it down. She needed something heavy. She wouldn't risk throwing her bag down there and losing all of her supplies in the explosion. Her water bottle! That had some weight to it, yes? It was filled somewhat; it could knock it down. As quick as she could, she fished her water bottle out of her bag, raised it and threw it down at the branch, and—crack!—it split in two and the nest went down. When it split, beneath her, all hell broke loose…


	14. Assuming Power

After the buzzing had subsided, Katniss pulled her torso from her knees and her hands from her face to see if they had all gone. They were; the only thing she heard was Cato's distant voice shouting, "To the lake! Get to the lake!", but her vision was fuzzy. Most of the Careers had the sense to drop everything and bolt. Glimmer wasn't as lucky as the rest of them. Katniss could hear her shrieks from way up in the tree. With her pack on her shoulder, Katniss did her best to climb down, trying her best to see what she was clinging to.

When she hit the ground, she was seeing in twos and threes while fighting through the pain to move and think straight. She found Glimmer's unconscious, almost dead, body, and was nearly disgusted. This once beautiful girl was unrecognizable: her face was now deformed and stretched; her limbs were two or three times their normal size from so many stings. Katniss found the bow in Glimmer's hand locked in a vice grip. She tried to pull the bow away, but it was fruitless. _I_ must _have that bow_, she thought. She looked around them, and although her vision tried to betray her, she found a stone. She stumbled to get it, took it to Glimmer's hand and brought it down hard to break her fingers. They broke with a _crack_. She pulled the bow away. Now for the arrows—the quiver itself was pinned behind Glimmer's back. She tried to roll her body onto its side, but Glimmer's weak skin kept sliding and pulling apart through her fingers, revealing the slimy green venom beneath. It might have been a hallucination, it might have been real—nevertheless, it was enough to make her wretch. This reaction alone caused her entire body to tremor violently in pain; even her vision worsened, blurring from the pain. She could no longer vomit, as she hadn't eaten anything in the last twenty-four or so hours. "_Do_ this!" she commanded herself, and she rolled Glimmer's slimy body on its side and yanked at the strap of the quiver. She unclipped the strap at the bottom and pulled the quiver off and threw it around her shoulder, clipping it in place. She looked down at Glimmer's body. "Who's better than who, Glimmer?" Katniss said with a hoarse voice.

"Katniss…!" she heard her name called. "Katniss!" Katniss looked around. She saw three of the District Four girls running at her. "Katniss run, leave!"

"Katniss!" she heard Peeta coming closer and closer. She heard the Career boys yelling in the background as Peeta and the District Four girl stop in front of her. "What are you doing?" Peeta yelled. "Get out of here! Go!"

"Come on!" said the District Four girl, dragging Katniss away as Katniss stumbled over her own feet. "Come on, let's go! We need to go!"

"Go, Katniss, go!" Peeta said pushing Katniss away.

The District Four girl pulled her away just as Cato came crashing back into the clearing with a sword drawn. Peeta drew a knife just as Katniss was pulled out of sight. Katniss looked at the tribute pulling her to safety. Even through her distorted vision, she had seen this girl before, not just when she was in the Career pack but one other time. She had come out of nowhere and appeared someplace. And she was also in the tree last night; she had helped Rue warn her about the nest, too. Was the _entire_ arena crawling with Clove's spies? Or was Clove spending all of her time with _her_ instead of with Katniss? She hadn't _really_ explained where she'd disappeared to for those three days! "Who are you?" she asked.

She looked at her. "Don't you remember?" the girl asked. "I'm Nym, of District Four. When the Gamemakers created the fire, I was there. I saw you running, you were injured and you didn't see the fireball until it was too late. I knocked you out of the way, and I wasn't sure if you would kill me and I ran away."

"That was you?" Katniss asked. Then again, there was something about her eyes. They were a very light green-brown, almost a gold; and her dark brown hair was streaked with some gold-blonde locks. She did look familiar.

"So where's your District partner?" Katniss asked.

Nym stiffened. "He…he's dead," she droned solemnly. "In a fight, two days ago." She turned away from Katniss, but she could see tears rolling down Nym's cheeks. _Real tears or hallucinations?_ Katniss thought.

Every step she took caused her pain; just lifting her arm was perplexing. "Ahh!" Katniss cried out, she fell to the ground. "I can't move any further."

Nym tried desperately to pull her to her feet. "Katniss, come on please!" Nym begged we have to move on. "Please! We have to move on! Please, Katniss!"

"I can't move anymore; please Nym, let me rest," Katniss pleaded, she tried to speak up, but it hurt too much to do so.

"Please, Katniss! If you fall asleep now, you may never wake up!" Nym implored.

"I…can't," Katniss breathed out. She couldn't fight it anymore and she fell unconscious…

* * *

"Please, Katniss! If you fall asleep now, you may never wake up!" Clove heard Nym implore. Clove ran to find them.

"Katniss?" Clove called. She heard Nym crying. She ran to go and find them. "Katniss! KATNISS!" She finally found them and fell to her knees, tears rushing down her face. Nym was crying over Katniss' body. Nym had her knees drawn up to her chest with her head down rocking back and forth. Katniss wasn't moving on the ground; her eyes were slit open just partially, but other than that, she didn't twitch, she didn't blink, and she breathed, but just barely. The stings on her body swelled literally to the size of oranges, when, according to statistics, they should have swelled to the size of plums. She had pulled the stingers out and done the right thing, yes, but just the fact that she was injured in anyway shattered Clove's heart. Clove crawled to Katniss body, almost in hysterics herself. She touched Katniss' face her hand shaking. As sucked in a sharp breath—_BOOM_!—a cannon went off. But Katniss was breathing…

"I'm sorry, Clove," Nym choked from behind her knees. "I'm sorry…" Clove stared at Katniss' body. She was a quiet crier; it was mostly silent tears and an occasional sharp but noiseless breath. Nym, however, preferred to be more animated, feeling that holding emotions in would be lying and ergo exacerbate problems. "It's all my fault," Nym squeaked out. "I should have pushed her to go further—"

"No," Clove assumed the blame. "No, this is my fault: I could have prevented all of this by being there for her more. This is my fault entirely." Her voice was flat. She kept all of her emotion out of her voice

"Clove," Nym said. "You know, I love you. I protected you when Cato demanded where you were."

"I know," Clove said.

Nym lifted her head. "But-but this is all my fault, I should have made her stay awake, I—"

"Stop!" Clove reached up to Nym's face. "Look at me, look at my eyes." Clove tipped Nym's chin for her eyes to meet hers. "It's not your fault, it's mine. It always has been!"

Nym stared into Clove's green eyes, and Clove stared back into Nym's gold ones. "I'm sorry," Nym squeaked.

"Don't," Clove said.

"I'm sorry it happened," Nym said _still_.

"Nym…" Clove said shaking her head. Something shouldn't have happened, but it did. Before Clove could think, and against her will, Clove's lips found Nym's—


	15. When it All Came Crashing Down

**Hi, everyone! We want to just say **_thank you_** to everyone to everyone who visited/view and reviewed or story it means a lot to us so thanks! We know some of you hit the ceiling after what all happened and there's a **HUGE** explanation behind it (okay, more like an excuse) so we'll keep you posted. **

In the meantime, here's Chapter XV!

Love Always,

*T-Rellz* and :Quizo:

* * *

—Nym's head realed! She saw everything at once as Clove kissed her and her body was on fire. _She_ was the Fire Girl now. Her eyes fluttered shut, and behind her eyelids fireworks exploded and danced before her as Clove poured all of her emotions into the kiss: her agony, her fear, her confusion, her abhorrence... her power; her saint-seducing power that lured Nym helplessly in. Clove broke the kiss and pushed Nym aggressively to the ground, straddled her waist and, once again, attacked her with kisses. Nym kissed back; her fingers tangled themselves in Clove's hair in an attempt to pull her closer. Nym couldn't kiss back as intensely as Clove; she was enjoying the bliss too well—this was Nym's first kiss, her first real kiss. She'd kissed her district partner, Bey, before, but that was a pathetic brush of the lips. This was real. Suddenly, Nym thought of Bey, how she must have been betraying him by kissing Clove.

Meanwhile, Clove came to her senses finally. Her eyes shot open and she ripped herself away from Nym as fast as she could. _Oh, no… Oh, no, no, no, no, no!_ Nym opened her eyes dizzily, still caught up in the heat of the kiss. Clove pulled away frantically with the realization now hitting her that the girl pinned beneath her did not have grey eyes, and that her hair was the wrong shade of brown, and that she was not Katniss, and it horrified her. She shook violently. _What have I done!_ Clove thought. But Nym, although feeling guilty, had never experienced such euphoria in all her life. She panted from the kiss and reached up to touch her lips and discovered how they still tingled. "Clove..." she breathed out in a whisper.

Clove panted in fear. She could see it in Nym's eyes—she wanted more. And worse, _Clove_ wanted more, too. She looked over at Katniss' limp body, then down at Nym. She pushed off of her and ran. She ran like never before trying to get as far away from Nym as possible, fighting against the bushes and swerving around trees. "CLOVE!" she heard somewhere behind her Clove ran faster. She heard thunder clap above her and looked up when a drop hit her eye. She kept running as rain began to pour down in the arena, blurring everything in its path. Lightning lit her way through the forest in the brief flashes that it came in. She looked down at the ground and kept running as the soil beneath her boots sloshed into mud. Thunder shook the ground. Clove screamed. The shock wave of fear that pulsed through Clove's body was almost enough to make Clove lose her footing. She had to get away! She had to run away! She had to—

She slipped on a slab of stone and fell. Her body rolled down a steep and stony hill. She attempted to stop herself but that only made it worse in the fact that she was risking injury. She gained footing for less than a second before losing her balance tumbling again. Down, down, down she went until the hit the ground with a loud thud. "Ahh!" Clove gasped out. She panted; her whole left side was in pain. She looked up the ravine. Several throwing knives littered the rocky terrain above her. She felt so low to the ground she started to cry, she silently gasped in an out as tears and rain streamed down her face. She tried to sit up, it was painful and she fell down again. She lay on her side for some time, crying and shivering from the cold rain. Something had to be broken, or sprained at the very least. She could not move. Thunder boomed over her and Clove gasped and drew her knees up. Clove drew shuddering breaths as the cold caused her to tremble. Lightning appeared above her again, followed seconds later by a parade of earth-shattering thunder. Clove knew she had to move, and she moved to stand using one of the rocks as a support. "Oh, God," she said pulling herself into a standing position. She thought about Katniss, she thought about Nym and Rue and Peeta, and Cato and Marvel. She hadn't been careful enough to keep this from Cato and Marvel; Cato would figure it out soon enough. Nym would do the right thing and tell Katniss before she had a chance to explain and she'll end up with Lover Boy. Clove clutched her side and sucked in another sharp breath. More tears poured from her eyes. This was all her fault. All her fault. She was careless, she forgot. But no, this was Katniss' fault. _She's_ the one who wasn't careful! She's the one who got those stings! She's the one who forgot Clove was a Career! She's the one who Clove let in! She's the one who always ran into danger! This is _Katniss'_ fault! Clove fell to her knees, knowing she was lying to herself. She rolled into a ball and beat her fists into the ground like a child, angry at herself. Clove's the one who let it happen, who fell for her, endangered her, abandoned her, laughed at her, scolded her, distrusted her, hurt her, cheated on her, and made her cry. She looked up at the sky as lightning flickered across. Clove's the one who let it all go wrong. It was her fault Katniss is going to die. It was her fault Cato will come back. It's her fault that it all came to ruin, that it was all in vain. Thunder rolled above her. _She_ did this, now she would suffer from it. She destroyed herself. The thunder might as well have been her cannon. She shrieked to herself, to Nym, to Katniss, to Panem, to the world, "I RUINED EVERYTHING!" Clove fell back to the ground, trying to let the rain purify her and watched, looking up at the sky, as her world fell apart around her. She couldn't take it anymore—there was no other way to go on…

* * *

Cato and Marvel sat in the Cornucopia, trying to do their best to stay shielded from the rain. The sound of the rain hitting the metal horn was almost deafening, but it was as good as a tent. "Dumbass wasps!" Marvel hissed jokingly, applying medicine to his tracker jacker stings. "I won't be able to lie down for a week. Did they get the better of you, too?" Marvel asked Cato over the noise. Cato knew what he was trying to do. Indirectly, Marvel was trying to help Clove by avoiding talking about her. He was her friend after all. Unlike Nym, who made up excuses for where she was, he'd think up possibilities for where she might be and then change the subject. No different, really, but at least he was trying to help.

The silence between them was almost unbearable for Marvel. Sure, he occupied most of his time by applying the medicines and ointments sponsors had sent, but he could do that for only so long. Cato grew tired of waiting for answers. "Where's Clove?" he asked impatiently, his flat voice cut effortlessly through the noise of the rain.

"I don't know, she's around here somewhere," Marvel said casually. "Why do you care? She'll come back, she always does, that Clove."

Eventually, Marvel ran out of spots to apply medicine. He knew Cato would sense it if he reapplied it so he put it away and stood at the edge of the Horn away from Cato. He looked out into the rain and desperately tried to come up with a topic. "You know," he began. "It's a shame it had to rain right in the middle of the afternoon. There's, like, nothing to do." Marvel laughed to himself and turned around. The sight of Cato not two feet behind him made is smile disappear in terror. Marvel took a step back into the rain. "What's going on, man?" Marvel chuckled nervously.

"You tell me," said Cato. "Where is Clove?"

"How should I know?" Marvel asked defensively. "We all ran in different directions after the attack, so-"

"So which direction did you see her run in?"

"I was more concerned with myself. I-It was every man for-for himself."

Cato stared Marvel down, and if looks could kill Marvel would be diced. As if on cue, a cry of "Cato" could be heard across the field. Cato did not look away from Marvel, but Marvel whipped around to look at anything other than Cato. "Cato?" The voice came closer. Clove came across the field. "Marvel!"

Marvel smiled. "Hey, Clover," greeted Marvel.

"I didn't-I didn't see you at... the lake, so I came here," Clove panted.

It didn't escape Marvel's notice that Clove seemed to limp as she walked, and that she appeared clutch her side, although she make it appear simply that she had her arms folded, or that her knuckles bled. He also saw she had no stings and that her eyes were puffy. He looked to see if Cato was scrutinizing her as well, but a disinterested Cato said simply, "Where were you? It doesn't take fifty years to get from the lake to here."

"I was injured…," Clove said slowly. Cato looked at her body as if for the first time. Clove lifted her shirt. A huge bruise covered the left side of her rib cage. Then she pulled it back down and knelt down to pull up her left pant leg. Her ankle was badly bruised. "I had to hobble to get back here."

"Aww," said Marvel, making a sad face. Clove giggled.

Cato rolled his eyes. "I'm going to sleep," he said, and he stalked to his sleeping bag, facing away from them

Clove and Marvel followed him in. Marvel sat on his sleeping bag and offered to give Clove a few pain killers and to message her injuries. Clove accepted appreciatively. For Clove this was an especially trying morning. After swallowing a few pills of ibuprofen and some water, Marvel messaged her ankle and her gently, alternating every few minutes. Clove always liked Marvel; he was sweet, and they always found something to talk about. They might have been friends, best friends even, if they weren't under these circumstances. They waited a few minutes until they were sure Cato was out cold to talk. "Okay, come on, shh," Marvel whispered. They pushed their sleeping bags together and slid inside close to each other. After covering themselves, Marvel spoke first.

"What happened?" Marvel mouthed.

"I've seen Nym," Clove whispered back silently.

Marvel raised an eyebrow. "And?" he murmured.

Clove sighed. "I should have killed her."


	16. Beneath the Lies

Rue pulled Katniss' heavy body under a ledge so that her body temperature had a lesser chance of dropping too quickly. Nym sat in the rain while Rue applied homemade medicine to Katniss' wounds. Nym cried into her knees and shivered in the rain. She couldn't believe Clove. She had kissed her, and she ran away. Nym's heart was falling apart. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't bear to think of her. She couldn't even _look_ at Katniss. She had come between them. She had to tell Katniss the truth. She wasn't deceptive enough to keep it from her. Nym hoped she would wake up soon. She needed to tell her. It would be awful if Katniss didn't wake up. She cried even harder. She would tell her she was sorry and that she didn't know how it happened. Clove was desperate for Katniss, and Nym was desperate for Bey. He was only thirteen and she was only fourteen and they were stupid kids, but that wasn't how she felt. She longed for him, and it ached now that she felt she longed for Clove. Katniss belonged to Clove, not her. Nym was devastated.

Thunder shook her from her thoughts. _I need to get out of here. _She stood to leave, and told Rue she'd be back with more leaves for her medicine. "But I have plenty—" Rue said, but Nym didn't hear her. She walked aimlessly in the rain. Tears still came rushing in rivers sown her cheeks, sobs still racked her whole body as the rain soaked her to the core. She stumbled, tripped over her own feet. Lightning lit her way through the forest, but she was so distraught she even ran into several trees, on her way to… somewhere. _To Clove._ Her head was full of questions; questions that needed answers. _How was kissing me such a mistake that she had to run from me? _she wondered. _How did this happen? Why would she kiss _me? Why indeed. Why does anyone kiss anyone else, when they're in a relationship? Why does anyone make love to anyone else, when they're in a relationship? It's too dangerous a question to answer, once you realize what you've done. Would Clove answer her was the real question. Nym knew the answer would probably not stop her tears or console her. She didn't know what to do or think. Thunder shook the ground around her, mocking her for her temporary ignorance of the answers, for it gave no answers and, coincidentally, stuffed her head with more questions somehow. _I've ruined everything, I've ruined Clove. I ruined Katniss. I ru—_Nym fell after tripping over a thick, slippery tree root. When she hit the ground she decided it was best if she just stay down and sit and think. Her hand brushed across her thigh, making her wince some. It made her remember the fight. She had survived. Bey might not have, but she had survived. And the boy who killed Bey is dead, with her assistance. Her injury still hurt, but seeing as it was only minor, it was healing. It would heal. And so would her heart. Bey was dead, but Nym still thought about him, his family was thinking about him—that's how they kept him alive. And somehow this business between her and Katniss and Clove would sort itself out, too either by the death of one or all of them, or by confrontation. The thought brought a smile to Nym's face and put comfort in her heart. She stood up, now regretting that she sat on wet ground, and made her way back to Rue and Katniss with confidence. And her tears were replaced only by the rain pattering against her face, but the rain didn't matter: she was determined—Let someone else cry!

* * *

How Clove missed that Cato could be an actor whenever he pleased was beyond him. He laid in his sleeping bag, faced away from her and Marvel, wide awake. He knew they were conspiring together: their sleeping bags close together; whispering secrets to each other; who knows what they were coming up with? He couldn't hear them very well, against the rain clamoring against the Horn, or the fact that they were talented at breathing secrets to one another, but he heard Marvel ask particular questions that she'd never answer for Cato. "…So where _were_ you?" Marvel murmured quietly; quiet enough to be almost inaudible. "Where do you keep _going_?"

Clove's answer was distorted, although he heard the name "Katniss."

"What about Katniss?" Marvel whispered.

Thunder cut off her answer.

He then heard Marvel mumble something unintelligible, to which Clove responded. Cato didn't hear the rest of their conversation, but he had enough evidence to suspect deception. _Katniss, huh?_ Cato already knew she was queer, but he never suspected that exactly. She had allegiance to Katniss. Smart girl; she had outscored them all. Then again, binding herself to the most valuable tribute would make her a big target—if someone got to Clove, it'd be only a short jump to Katniss. Whatever, that was her decision, and if Katniss didn't kill her off, Cato would kill her for betrayal. He kept still and silent, waiting for the right time to strike—

* * *

"What happened?" Marvel mouthed.

"I've seen Nym," Clove whispered back silently.

Marvel raised an eyebrow. "And?" he murmured.

Clove sighed. "I should have killed her." Lightning lit entire inside of the Horn.

"Did she do this to you?" he asked, referring to her crushed ankle and battered ribcage that he'd massaged for her.

"No, I fell. I… I fell a long way down," she explained. Tears began to slip from her eyes. "I don't know what to do," she said her voice cracking.

Marvel was stunned, unsure of how to console her. He tried to find the right words. "Well what happened?"

Thunder rolled in the background. Clove looked up into the face of a concerned Marvel. His eyes were soft and understanding She smiled up him. He cared so much for people around him. The happy thought moved Clove almost to tears. She wanted to tell him, she wanted it all off her chest, but she knew she could never tell him. And the thought made her despair. She brought her hands to her face and shook her head.

Marvel nodded his head. "Okay," he whispered. He looked away in thought. "Well… at least answer this: You keep disappearing, so where _were_ you? Where do you keep _going_?"

Clove inhaled, thinking of how to explain. "I'm looking for Katniss," she hiccupped tearfully, a little louder than she should have. She tried to stop her tears, but only more tears rushed out the more she tried to compose herself.

Marvel took her face in his hands and stroked her cheeks. "Hey, hey, shh," he soothed. It helped calm Clove tremendously. "Shh, okay," he continued after she'd stopped shaking some. "What about Katniss?" Marvel asked.

Thunder clashed arrogantly, shaking the ground. "I want her… out of the competition," she whispered after it had passed. "She attacked us, and I want my revenge."

"Clove, you're not even stung."

_Oh that's right, I'm not,_ Clove realized. She had no stings. Just her ankle and flank were injured. "Well, when I went to look for her, that's when I fell; she looked down on me and smirked," she said. Just the thought of that lie brought more tears to her eyes. She had betrayed her, left her there to die in the rain. She might as well have pushed Katniss down the ravine herself and smirked at her when she hit the bottom. She might as well have. Or at least that's how she felt. She reached down to her vest pulled out a stellar-clean knife to examine her reflection. She looked for reasoning and solace, she looked for answers, but she saw the same confused, miserable, and guilty brown-green-eyed girl staring back at her. Lightning illuminated her reflection. She hated herself. "She knew what she was doing," Clove hissed, more at herself than at Marvel. "And she tried to kill me." Clove sighed and let more tears fall.

Marvel sighed. "Well, yeah, but come on," he whispered, trying to reason with her. "It's either kill or be killed, yes? It's not like she was our ally."

There it was, the truth. The thunder seemed to emphasize it. It took everything in Clove not to cry again. She twiddled the knife nervously. "Yeah, I guess not." And as if _that_ lie wasn't bad enough, she went on. "It's a shame she made an _arch_enemy of us, though; she would have made an excellent ally, that sneaky scamp. But we would have killed her off eventually anyways. We _did_ see what she was capable of, though, when she dropped the tracker jacker nest on Glimmer's head." Clove snickered darkly at the memory.

"It really fell on her head?" Marvel mumbled as he tried desperately to suppress his laughter.

"It was hilarious," Clove whispered back. They both laughed as they tried to remember the attack. "After all, Glimmer called her scum and said she was talentless, she should have known to sleep with both eyes open. Why, so you miss her?"

Marvel sighed. He _did_ miss her; she was his district partner after all. Sure, she got annoying and girly and hung off of Cato's arm like he was a swing set, but she reminded him of home. Sure… he missed her. "A little," he admitted quietly. "I mean, why not? She was my partner, no matter how much of a bitch she was."

Clove chuckled.

Marvel liked Clove's laugh, her _real_ laugh—it was rare and… happy. "Would you miss it if Cato died?"

Clove thought it over. "No."

Marvel raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Why not?"

She put her knife away, resisting the urge to run over and stab Cato repeatedly to death. "It's a long story, I don't wanna burden you," Clove answered. She turned sad and cold again, but she didn't cry. The thought of Cato wore her out too much for her to cry. Marvel wished he hadn't of asked. He just wanted to make her happy again, smile again, laugh again. Without thinking, he pushed his lips to hers. A stunned Clove hesitated. _WHAT?!_ she thought. But it made sense! How close they were, the secrets they knew, how much they shared about each other, it was all part of a cryptic secrecy they've _always_ had!

Suddenly Marvel pulled away in embarrassment. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

Clove stared at him, and then reached up to touch her lips. She didn't understand: she… _let_ Marvel kiss her, she almost kissed him back, she should feel bad… but she _didn't_. She blushed. "Don't say that," she replied with a smile. She looked away, out across the field into the rain. It didn't matter anymore, the storm didn't matter. "You make me think of something." She smiled again. "Someone, rather."

"Well," Marvel concluded. "I know you're hiding something. I can see it in your eyes. I just… I just wish you could have been with the person you really want to be with."

Clove looked back at Marvel. She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek before slipping out of the sleeping bag silently and standing. "Thank you." With that, she limped out into the rain and disappeared.


End file.
